TheWay Library › The Christ of the Bible › Chapter VII: The Return from Heaven to Earth of Jesus, the Christ of the Bible: Or, the Second Coming of the Christ

Chapter VII

The Return from Heaven to Earth of Jesus, the Christ of the Bible: Or, the Second Coming of the Christ

The subject of this chapter is, The Return of Jesus, the Christ of the Bible, from heaven (where He now is) to this earth; or, as it is commonly spoken of, The Second Coming of The Christ. There is perhaps no other subject regarding Jesus, the Christ of the Bible, that has awakened so much interest in recent years, upon which there is so much difference of opinion, and which has provoked so much controversy even among good men who profess to believe in the whole Bible, and oftentimes such bitter controversy, as the Second Coming of Christ. But what the Bible has to say on this subject is clear as crystal and as definite and as positive as words can make it, both in the English versions and in the original Greek of the New Testament and the original Hebrew of the Old Testament. What we shall say is built entirely upon a long continued and careful and thorough and entirely unprejudiced study not merely of the Authorized Version and of the Revised Version but of the Greek New Testament and the Hebrew Old Testament. I have read many books on different sides and different phases of this question, books in English and books in German, but everything that I shall have to say will be built entirely upon one book, The Book, God’s Own Book,

The Bible. We shall begin with seven passages of Scripture which are of fundamental importance. These seven passages do not contain all I have to say: they are simply the keynote of what I have to say, and many other passages of Scripture will be examined later; but we do not intend to express one single thought or to say one single word that is not built upon some specific portion of the Word of God which we shall cite in connection with the thought. I shall not waste your time with any speculations of my own on this tremendously important subject; I shall give you nothing but what God Himself has been pleased to say in a Book that He intended to be understood; and God knows enough to make Himself understood, if men really desire to understand what He has to say and not merely to find something in God’s Word to bolster up their own preconceived and self-made opinions.

We shall indulge in no bitterness or ridicule or cheap attempts at sarcasm. They are entirely out of place in any honest search after the truth, but they are peculiarly out of place in discussions regarding this precious doctrine and blessed hope.

Our first passage is our Lord’s own parting promise to His disciples, made the night before He left them, found in Jno. 14: 1-3:

“Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto Myself; that where I am there ye may be also.”

The second passage is Heb. 9: 28:

“So Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for Him, unto salvation.”’

The third passage is Phil. 3:20, 21:

“For our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subject all things unto Himself.”

Our fourth passage is one that we had occasion to refer to several times in the Sixth Chapter, in studying the Ascension of Jesus, the Christ of God, and His Exaltation to the right hand of the Father in Heaven, Acts 1:9-I1:

“And when He (Jesus) had said these things, as they were looking, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they were looking stedfastly into heaven as He went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? this Jesus, Who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld Him going into heaven.”

The fifth passage is 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17:

“For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shal! rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

The sixth passage is Acts 3: 19-21:

“Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send the Christ Who hath been appointed for you, even Jesus: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, whereof God spake by the mouth of His holy prophets that have been from of old.”

The seventh and last passage is the last prayer in the Bible, the prayer that sums up all the longings of the believing heart, a prayer inspired by the revelations and promises of this wonderful Book of God that so closes, Rev. 22:20:

“He who testifieth these things saith, Yea: I come quickly. Amen: come, Lord Jesus.”

We shall consider:

First, the Importance of the Bible Doctrine of the Return of the Lord Jesus from Heaven, where He now is, to this earth where we now are and where He once was;

Second, the Fact of His Return to this Earth;

Third, the Manner of our Lord’s Return from Heaven where He now is to this earth;

Fourth, the Results of the Return of Jesus, the Christ of the Bible, the only true Christ, from Heaven where He now is to this earth;

Fifth, the Time when Jesus is Coming back again to this Earth.

I. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE BIBLE DOCTRINE OF
THE RETURN OF OUR LORD JESUS FROM
HEAVEN WHERE HE NOW IS TO THIS EARTH,
WHERE HE ONCE WAS.

We shall consider first the Importance of the Bible Doctrine of the Return of our Lord Jesus from Heaven, where He now is, to this earth, where He once was.

1. In the first place, The importance of the doctrine of the Return of our Lord Jesus from Heaven where He now is to this earth is seen in the fact that tt 1s mentioned at least three hundred and eighteen tumes in the two hundred and sixty chapters of the New Testament and that it occupies at least one m every twenty-five verses from Matthew to Revelation. The doctrine of our Lord’s future Return from Heaven to the earth certainly does not occupy so large a place in the preaching of the average minister of the Gospel to-day as it does in the New Testament.

I met one Monday morning in the Chicago Gallery of Fine Arts one of the Congregational ministers of that city. I said to him, ‘““What did you preach about yesterday?’ He replied, “I preached on the Second Coming of Christ. We were taught in the Theological Seminary that we were to give truth in scriptural proportions; and, as I am told that the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ is found once in every twenty-five verses of the New Testament, I preach one sermon in every twenty-five on the Second Coming of Christ.” That probably was reducing it to too much of a mathematical nicety; nevertheless, certainly the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ should occupy a far larger place in our preaching than it does in the preaching of the average minister of to-day.

2. In the second place, We see the Importance of the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ in the. fact that by far the greater number of predictions in the Old Testament concerning the Christ Who was to come, do not refer to His Coming in the earthly life which He has already lived here upon earth, His coming to die as an atoning sacrifice for sin, but to His ‘Return to this earth from Heaven as a conquering King after He had died and was raised and ascended to the right hand of the Father.

3. In the third place, The Importance of the truth of our Lord’s Return from Heaven to earth is seen ™ the fact that this is the one truth with which God bids us to comfort those believers who are sorrowing over the death of their loved ones. This we see in I Thess. 4: 13-18:

“But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that fall asleep; that ye sorrow not, even as the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

My own experience in my forty-five years of ministry is that there is no other doctrine taught in the Word of God that brings such comfort and joy to the hearts of real Christians in the midst of their saddest bereavements as the doctrine of the Return of the Lord Jesus. I have found it so, not only in my own personal experience when loved ones have been taken from me, but also in the many letters of consolation that I have written to friends in different parts of the world whose loved ones have been taken from them. I never write a letter of comfort to any one who is sorrowing for the departure of those who have fallen asleep in Christ in which I do not refer to the Second Coming of our Lord, and I always quote the specific passage which I have just read; and times without number I have received letters back speaking of the abounding comfort that came to those to whom I have written through what I had said on this point.

In a similar way the Coming of the Lord Jehovah in the Person of our Lord Jesus in His Return to this earth to rule, is the one doctrine with which the Old Testament prophets were commanded to comfort God’s people in their oppression and sorrow. This we see Te stevtOn 2 OVO LT:

“Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to (Hebrew — to the heart of) Jerusalem; and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that she hath received of Jehovah’s hand double for all her sins.... (9-11) O Thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up on a high mountain; O Thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up Thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Behold the Lord Jehovah will come as a mighty One, and His arm will rule for Him: behold His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him. He will feed Hs flock like a shepherd, He will gather the lambs in His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and will gently lead those that have their young,”

4. In the fourth place, We see the Importance of this doctrine in that, “The Appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ’ at His Return and the events connected therewith are “the blessed hope’ and “eager desire” of all intelligent and properly instructed believers. This we see in Titus 2: 13:

“Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ (English Revision and Greek).”

And we also see it in 2 Pet. 3: 11, 12, as it is properly translated in the Revised Version:

“Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?”

6. In the sixth place, We see the fundamental and vital Importance of the doctrine of our Lord’s Return pnb CHRist- OFC Prt BI BUTE 213

to this earth in that the fact of our Lord’s Return to this earth is the great Bible argument for a life of watchfulness, fidelity and wisdom in service, untiring activity, self-sacrificing simplicity of life, continuous self-restraint, constant prayer and abiding in Christ. Time would fail us to quote all the passages that prove this, but take a few illustrations, Matt. 24: 44-40:

“Therefore be ye also ready; for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath set over his household, to give them their food in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh, shall find so doing.”

Read Luke 21: 34-36:

“But take heed to yourselves, lest haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day come on you suddenly as a snare: for so shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face of all the earth. But watch ye at every season, making supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”

Now read what John says in 1.Jno. 2:28:

“And now, my little children, abide mn Him; that, if He shall be manifested, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.”

At your leisure read the entire twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew and note carefully to what a great extent the Return of the Lord Jesus to this earth is emphasized as the one great motive of proper conduct in all the different phases of the Christian life. There can be no question in the mind of any one who candidly, carefully and thoroughly studies the Scriptures, that the one fact that is constantly urged by our Lord and by His apostles as an incentive to a watchful, faithful, wise, active, simple, temperate and prayerful life, is the fact that our Lord Jesus is some day coming back from heaven where He now is to this earth where we now are.

7. In the seventh place, The Importance of the doctrine of the Coming again of our Lord Jesus to this earth is seen in the fact that, Our Lord Jesus Himself pronounced a special blessing upon all those servants whom He should find watching when He came again. This we see in our Lord’s Words in Luke 12: 35-38:

“Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning; and be ye yourselves like unto men looking for their lord, when he shail return from the marriage feast; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may straightway open unto him. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and shall come and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, and if in the third, and find them so, blessed are those servants.”

I long to obtain for myself this especial and signal blessing that our Lord here promises to those who are watching and eagerly waiting for His Coming, and I also earnestly desire that all who read this book may also obtain it.

During my first pastorate, the first Pre-Millennial Conference was held in New York. It was held in one of the Episcopal churches, the church of the elder Dr. Stephen Tyng. It awakened great interest, and the New York Tribune printed all the addresses in full, The chorister of my own church was the editor of the local paper and he read all the addresses in the New York Tribune. He came to me and said, “Will you not speak on the Second Coming of Christ?” I put him off as best I could, but I thought to myself, “It will be a long time before you hear me speaking on so impractical and visionary a subject as that of the Second Coming of Christ.’’ I thank God, that the time came when I discovered that it was not an impractical doctrine, but on the contrary one of the most practical doctrines in the whole Bible, and this doctrine became not only a source of wonderful blessing in my own life, but a blessing to countless thousands around the world to whom it has been my privilege to proclaim this vitally important truth.

Il. THE FACT OF THE RETURN OF THE LORD JESUS,
THE CHRIST OF GOD, FROM HEAVEN WHERE
HE NOW IS TO THIS EARTH WHERE HE ONCE
WAS.

Now we come directly to the all important matter of the Fact of the Return of the Lord Jesus, the Christ of God, from Heaven where He now is to this earth

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where He once was. This fact is announced over and over again in the Bible in the clearest, most definite, most positive and most unmistakable terms.

I. Jesus Himself announced it in John 14: 1-3:

Our Lord Jesus had told His disciples that He was about to leave them, that the intimate, personal fellowship with Himself in the body which they had enjoyed for about four years, was about to come to an end, and that for some time they would see Him no more. “I am going (literal translation of Jno. 14:28), He told them. “I am going away to Him that sent Me’’ (literal translation of Jno. 16:5), and sorrow filled their hearts (Jno. 16:5,6). They were filled with consternation at the thought of His going away to Heaven and leaving them here on earth alone. Then Jesus spoke the wonderful words found in Jno. 14: 1-27 to comfort them and to deliver them from all fear. He prefaced these words by saying, ‘Let not your heart be troubled,’ and closed them by saying, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.” Almost the first thing He told them to cheer them and comfort them and deliver them from all fear, was that, although He was going, He was not going for good, that He was coming back to this earth. He said, “Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you: for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, J come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

2. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews declares the same thing. He says in Heb. 9: 28:

“So Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for Him, unto salvation.”

3. Paul declares the same great fact with some added details in 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17:

“For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

Paul, when he wrote these words, doubtless had in mind the words of Jesus which we have just read from John 14:1-3; for they cover exactly the same four points that Jesus’ own words cover:

(1) The “I come again’ of Jesus, parallels Paul’s words, “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven.”

(2) The “Receive you unto Myself” that Jesus spoke exactly parallels Paul’s “We... shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”

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(3) The words that Jesus spoke, “That where I am, there ye may be also” parallel exactly Paul’s words, “And so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

(4) Jesus’ words of comfort are preceded by the words, “Let not your heart be troubled,” and this is exactly paralleled by verse eighteen of Paul’s words where he says, ‘Comfort one another with these words.” Furthermore Paul says in the immediately preceding verses, ““This we say unto you by the word of the Lord’; that is to say, he was quoting the Lord Jesus’ own teaching.

Paul declares again this same great fact that Jesus, the Christ of God, is coming back from Heaven where He now is to this earth, in Phil. 3: 20, 21:

4. Peter declares the same great fact that Jesus, the Christ of God, is coming back from Heaven where He now is to this earth, in Acts 3: 19-21:

PR EVOh nis Obi oh BIBLE 219

So we have the united and unanimous testimony of Peter, the apostle to the Jews, and Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, and of Jesus Christ our Lord Himself, to the fact that some day our Lord, Who one day ascended from Mount Olivet into Heaven, is to return from Heaven, where He now is and has been since His Ascension, to this earth where He once was, when He walked the streets of Jerusalem and climbed the hills and sailed the waters of Galilee. Over and over again in these verses it is declared that “the very same Jesus’ Who died on the cross, whose body was laid in Joseph’s sepulcher, Whose body was raised from the dead, and Who was carried bodily “into Heaven,” to the right hand of the Father, is coming back again to this earth, which He left forty days after His Resurrection. Not one of these predictions has as yet been fulfilled.

I will not waste your time with discussing the question whether these promises have not already been fulfilled in Jesus coming to the individual at the death of the individual believer, or in the coming of the Holy Spirit at the Day of Pentecost, or in His coming to the individual believer when he receives the Holy Spirit, Who forms within Him an indwelling Christ (which is of course a very real Coming of Christ, though clearly it is not at all the Coming of Christ promised in the passages which we have read), or in the Coming of Christ at the destruction of Jerusalem. I say I will not waste your time with discussing these questions, whether these promises have not already been fulfilled in some one or all of the events mentioned, because those who once tried to take the force out of these passages which I have quoted by interpretations of this character, have themselves largely given up the attempt as hopeless, and now content themselves either by saying frankly or by covertly implying that Paul and Peter and even Jesus Himself were mistaken in what they said. Furthermore, the utter impossibility of these interpretations will be clearly seen when we take up the next division of our subject, the Manner of Jesus Christ’s Coming again.

Ill. THE MANNER OF THE RETURN OF JESUS, THE CHRIST OF THE BIBLE, FROM HEAVEN WHERE HE NOW IS TO THIS EARTH.

We come now to a consideration of the Manner of the Return of Jesus, the Christ of the Bible, from Heaven where He now is to this earth where we now are. Here again the Bible is as plain and as explicit and as definite as language can by any possibility make it; and, if we are willing to take the words of Jesus Himself and of His apostles, inspired of God (the accuracy of whose words as being Spirit taught and containing the full truth of God Jesus Himself endorsed), at their full face value (and this is the only honest and intelligent way of taking the words of any intelligent and honest person, and especially the words of our Divine Lord), there can be no mistaking what the truth is in this matter. The speculations and imaginings and maunderings of subtle theologians may be interesting and may also be in a measure helpful as a mental exercise, but THE ONLY THING ON A SUBJECT LIKE THIS THAT IS REALLY WORTH WHILE OR THAT GETS

Heer CHRIST: OF VEE: BIBLE 22

ANYWHERE, IS WHAT GOD SAYS IN THE BOOK. Well, what does God say in the Book?

I. In the first place, as to the Manner of the Return of Jesus from Heaven where He now is to this earth, Our Lord will come back to this earth again personally, the very same Jesus Who was received up from this earth into Heaven shall come back from Heaven to this earth. This our Lord Himself declares ATH Oni mae ass

“If I go and prepare a place for you, J come again, and will receive you unto Myself; that where I am there ye may be also.”

Paul said it in so many words in 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17:

The two messengers in white whom God sent to cheer the apostles as they saw the Lord Jesus ascending into Heaven and leaving them behind here on earth, and a cloud receiving Him out of their sight, for a long, long time, said the same thing in Acts I:Q-Il:

“And when He (that is Jesus) had said these things, as they were looking, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they were looking stedfastly into heaven as He went, behold two men stood by them in white apparel; who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why

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stand ye looking into heaven? this Jesus, Who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld Him going into heaven.”

It is evident from these, as well as from many other utterances in the Bible, that the Return of our Lord Jesus so frequently spoken of in the New Testament is not to be merely some new revelation of truth, or some great moral or religious reform or some ecstatic experience of the individual; it is to be the Coming of a Person, of the very same Jesus Whom the disciples saw going into heaven. He shall come again, “THE LORD HIMSELF shall descend from heaven.” ‘The claim is frequently made by the Christian Scientists that the revelation of Christian Science to Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy in 1876 was the Coming Again of Jesus Christ; but the passage just cited makes it clear as day that the Coming Again of Jesus Christ is not the mere revelation of truth to Mrs. Eddy (or to any one else), but the Coming of a Person, the very same Person Who was once here, and Who went into heaven, and is at present there.

2. In the second place, as to the Manner of our Lord Jesus’ Coming back again, Our Lord Jesus shall return to this earth in a visible, bodily form. This also is clear from the words of the heavenly messengers which we just quoted. Let us read them again, Acts I:Q-II:

“And when He (that is, Jesus) had said these things, as they were looking, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they were looking stedfastly into heaven as

He went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? this Jesus, Who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld Him going into heaven.”

Please note particularly the words “as ye beheld Him going into heaven.” The Greek word translated “ye beheld” is a very strong intensive word meaning “to look stedfastly at with the eyes” (“such a looking as seeks a gratification of the sense of sight”), and IT CERTAINLY TEACHES BEYOND A POSSI-BILITY OF HONEST DOUBT THAT JESUS IS COMING BACK IN A VISIBLE BODY THAT GAN BE SEEN WITH THE EYES:

Some years ago a new pastor was being installed in the First Congregational Church in Minneapolis. I was a member of the Installing Council. It was the custom in those days to carefully question the candidate for either ordination or installation as to his doctrinal views. I put to this particular candidate, who was a well known and gifted minister of the Gospel, the question, “Do you believe in the Personal, Visible, Bodily Return of our Lord Jesus to this earth?” He replied, “I do not.’ Then I asked him a second question “What do you do with Acts 1:11:

“““This Jesus, Who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come im like manner as ye beheld Him going into heaven’?”’

He replied, “The words mean that He is coming with equal certainty as He went, but have nothing to do with the Manner of His coming.” But such an interpretation is absolutely impossible to any one who will examine the uniform usage and exact force of the Greek words used. The Greek words used do not admit of such an interpretation. Literally translated the Greek words would read, “This Jesus (and the emphasis is upon the “This,” thus emphasizing the fact that it was the very same Jesus Whom they had seen going, and not some other Jesus) Who was taken up from you into the heaven thus shall come im the manner which ye beheld Him going into the heaven.” I have examined every passage in which the word ttanslated “manner” is used, and it never means anything but the “manner,” it does not indicate mere certainty in one single instance; therefore these words as used here must describe the “manner” in which Jesus is coming and nothing else, and as the heavenly messengers declared, Jesus is coming “in the (exact) manner” that they “beheld Him going into heaven.”

That the Coming Again of Jesus Christ will be in a visible bodily form is unmistakably clear also from Heb9;28:

“So Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time.”

The word translated “shall appear” in this verse means literally “shall be seen.’ The definition given of the Greek word here used by Thayer in his Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, the best authority extant, is, “to see with the eyes.” It cannot mean anything else.

That Jesus is to come visibly and bodily is also as clear as words can make it in Rev. 1:7:

“Behold, He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they that pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him.”

These words make it as clear as language can possibly make it, that our Lord’s Return is not merely a spiritual coming (or Coming in the Spirit), but a: visible, bodily Coming, so visible that at least at one stage of His Coming “every eye shall see Him.” It is impossible to explain these words away and deal honestly with the Word of God.

I was speaking on the Second Coming of Christ one Sunday morning in the Moody Church in Chicago. I had among my hearers one of Pastor Russell’s teachers of his Millennial Dawn Vagaries. At the close of the address this teacher stopped me and said, “Mr. Torrey, you don’t believe, do you, that Jesus is so coming that we can see Him with these eyes of ours?” I replied, “It does not make a particle of difference what I believe, but it makes all the difference in the world what God says. Let me show you just what God says,” and I opened my Bible to Rev. 1:7:

“Behold, He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they that pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him.”

He had nothing more to say. What more was there to say? “Pastor Russell’s” theory regarding the Coming of our Lord in October, 1874, will not bear any careful examination, nor will the theories of any

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one else who denies the actual, literal, bodily, visible Return of our Lord Jesus to this earth.

3. In the third place, The Return of the Lord Jesus, the true Christ, the Christ of God, from heaven to this earth shall be with great publicity. This fact Jesus Himself made clear and declared with great emphasis in Matt. 24: 26, 27:

“If therefore they shall say unto you, Behold, He ts in the wilderness; go not forth: Behold, He is in the inner chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west; so shall be the coming of the Son of man.”

We are constantly being told by modern errorists of one kind or another that the Lord Jesus has already come in some “inner chamber,’ or in some obscure corner, of the earth. For example, ‘Pastor Russell’ taught, and the Millennial Dawnists still teach, that Christ came in October, 1874; the ‘‘Christian Scientists’ would have us believe that He came in Concord to Mrs. Eddy in the Revelation of ‘Science and Health”; “The Flying Roll” advocates say that He come in “Prince Michael’’; others teach that He came in Schweinfurth; others that He came in Dora Beekman; others that He came in “Cyrus” Teed. Since I have been in Los Angeles two different persons, a picture of one of whom I have stowed away in my office closet, were claimed to be the Christ come back to earth and that He was soon to be manifested, ‘one of them in the Mojave Desert and the other somewhere else. But all these “Inner Chamber Christs” and “Obscure Corner Christs’ are a huinbug; and they were

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predicted and exposed by our Lord Jesus Himself centuries ago.

Even at His Coming for His saints to take them up to be with Himself, it seems that there will be a large measure of publicity about it, since Paul describes it in these words:

“The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

There does not seem to be any room here for the doctrine, so widely taught, of the Secret Rapture of Believers. We shall be taken up with a large measure of publicity; and there is reason to hope that those left behind will be so impressed that many of them will be converted.

4. In the fourth place, dt His Return from heaven to this earth the Son of man is coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. This our Lord Himself declares in Matt. 24: 30:

“And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”

The question will naturally arise, What does the statement that He is “coming on the clouds of heaven,” signify? It signifies that He is coming as an unmistakably Divine Person and not merely as a man. The only One Whom the Bible ever represents as coming “in (or, on) the clouds” is the Eternal, Almighty Jehovah. I will not take the space to quote in full the passages. You can look them up for yourselves. ‘They are Ex. 19703 34153 Ps.97 >) 1; (29 batt pera PSwlOa a visaut Ore

It is evident from all these passages that it was Jehovah Who came “in (or, on) the clouds,” He, and He alone; and, therefore, to say that our Lord Jesus is “coming in (or, on) the clouds,” is equivalent to saying that He is coming as the Divine One, or coming in fully manifested Divine Glory. The high priest in whose presence our Lord Jesus said that He was “coming on the clouds of heaven’ (Matt. 26:64), fully recognized that Jesus, by saying this, was proclaiming His real and full Deity, for we read in the next verse, “Then the high priest rent his garments, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy.”

When Jesus came before, He came as the helpless Babe of Bethlehem for Whom there was no room in the inn, He was born in a cow stable and cradled ina manger; but when He comes again He will come as God clearly manifested, riding in the chariot of God, the clouds (compare Ps. 104:3).

And He is coming also, as the verse we are studying declares, “with power and great glory.’ I was once speaking on the Second Coming of Christ at Northfield, in the Auditorium. While I was speaking very black clouds had gathered over Northfield and right over the Auditorium. I had just read Matt. 24: 30, and said in commenting upon it that Jesus is coming again with “power and great glory.’’ Just then, in an instant, the room was filled with blinding light and there was immediately a deafening crash of thunder. The lightning had struck the building where we were gathered and went all over the wires. People sprang to their feet and some shrieked. I said, “Oh, sit down. There is nothing to be afraid of. This is nothing to what it will be when the Lord Jesus actually comes again.” [ looked down to my left; and there, seated very calmly and very radiant, was a little elderly woman, Mr. Moody’s oldest sister. Her face was a picture. It was filled not with fear, but with ecstatic exultation. When I went down and spoke to her at the close of the address she said; “Oh, Mr. Torrey, I was so happy, it was the happiest moment of my life, I thought that Jesus had really come.” And for years afterward whenever I met her she would refer to that day.

5. In the fifth place, At the Return from heaven to this earth of the Lord Jesus He 1s coming in the glory of His Father, accompanied by the “holy angels’ as His triumphal train. This Jesus Himself declares. You will find His words in Matt. 16:27:

“For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then shall He render unto every man according to His deeds.”

He said it again in Mark 8: 38:

“For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of man also shall be ashamed of him, when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Paul refers to the same fact in 2 Thess. 1:7:

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“And to you that are afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of His power.”

When He came before He came in great humiliation. He had “emptied Himself” of His Divine glory, He had laid aside “the form of God” and taken the “form of a servant,” and had been “‘made in the likeness of men.” They did with Him whatsoever they pleased: they mocked Him; they blindfolded Him; they spit upon Him; they scourged Him; they nailed Him to the cross and derided Him; but when He comes again He will come with all the glory, all the visible glory of Deity and all the wondrously glorious hosts of heaven will follow in His train.

When Mrs. Torrey and I were in India in 1902 they were preparing for Emperor Edward’s Durbar and Mrs. Torrey went up to Jaipur to see the preliminary processions of the Durbar. She came back with wonderful stories of Rajahs and Maharajahs and other dignitaries, clad in cloth of gold, and even of elephants arrayed with golden garments, and of unparalleled splendor of all kinds. But the most glorious Durbar or Coronation that there has ever been on this earth was nothing at all in comparison with the glory of the countless hosts who will accompany our Lord in that great and glad Coming Day when He descends from heaven to this earth.

6. In the sixth place, At our Lord’s return from heaven to earth our Lord Jesus is coming as a thief, that is, He is coming without announcement, without warning, unexpectedly, suddenly. This He says in Rev. 16:15:

PrP Cri RS teORMET Ee BUBIT. 231

“Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth His garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.”

Paul indicates the same thing in 1 Thess. 5: 2, 3:

“For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. When they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape.”’

We should bear in mind that there will be different stages in our Lord’s Return to this earth. I will not take the time to quote the Scriptures now for we shall have occasion to refer to them later, but you can look them up for yourselves, 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17; Matt. Boca leceneuiness..2: 2,75 Zech. 14: 45,5.

The first stage will be when the Lord comes in the air, whither His believing people will be caught up to meet Him; the second stage will be when the Lord comes to the earth. In this latter stage His saints will come with Him (1 Thess. 3:13; Col. 3:4; 1 Thess. 4:14). In the air Christ comes for His own: to the earth He comes with His own. For anything we are told in the Bible, a considerable interval may take place between these two stages of our Lord’s coming. However, the Coming of our Lord in the air for His saints and His Coming to the earth with His saints are not two Comings of our Lord, but two stages in His one Coming. His Coming to the earth with His saints is the culmination of His Coming in the air for His saints. It will help us solve the many seeming discrepancies in the many passages of the Bible tnat

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deal with this subject, if we will keep constantly in mind this distinction between the Lord Coming in the air for His saints and His Coming to the earth with His saints.

The third stage will be a succession of events which will follow His Coming to the earth. This stage in our Lord’s Coming will cover a long period of years.

IV. THE RESULTS OF THE RETURN OF JESUS, THE
CHRIST OF THE BIBLE, FROM HEAVEN WHERE
HE NOW IS TO THIS EARTH WHERE WE NOW
ARE AND WHERE HE ONCE WAS.

We come now to a careful consideration of The Results of The Return of the Lord Jesus, the Christ of the Bible, from Heaven where He now is to this Earth where we now are and where He once was, as these results are set forth in the Word of God. We shall find that these Results are very wonderful and such as to fill our heart with great joy and immeasurable and well-grounded hope. These Results naturally divide themselves into six classes:

First, The Results of the Return of the Lord Jesus as regards the Church, i.e., all who have received Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour and surrendered to Him as their Lord and Master and confessed Him as such before the world before He comes.

Second, The Results of the Return of the Lord Jesus as regards Israel.

Third, The Results of the Return of the Lord Jesus as regards the Gentile Nations and unregenerate individuals.

Fourth, The Results of the Return of the Lord Jesus as regards the Anti-Christ and the Devil.

Fifth, The Results of the Return of the Lord Jesus as regards human society as a whole.

Sixth, The Results of the Return of the Lord Jesus as regards the physical universe.

I. First then let us consider, THE RESULTS OF
THE RETURN OF THE LORD JESUS FROM
HEAVEN FOUBARTH AS “REGARDS THE
CHURCH.

They will be manifold.

(1) In the first place, At the Return of the Lord Jesus from Heaven to Earth the Bodies of All those Believers in Christ who have died before He comes back will be raised from the Dead. This the Apostle Paul declares in the plainest possible terms in 1 Thess. 4: 13-16:

We see here that the bodies of our friends who have departed from this life before He comes will be raised from the dead at the Return of the Lord Jesus; that before He reaches this earth, while He is still in the air on His way here, their bodies will be raised.

Where at the present time are our departed friends who really believed in Jesus Christ? This the Word of God tells us plainly: it tells us that their spirits are with Christ in Paradise, but that their bodies are in the grave or crumbled into the dust from which they were originally made, our loved ones at the present time are “absent from the body, but at home with the Lord.” Let me read you 2 Cor. 5: 1-8:

“For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle (that 1s, our present bodies) be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands (that is, our resurrection bodies), eternal, in the heavens. For verily in this (that is, in this present earthly body which we now have), we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven (that is, our resurrection body): if so be it that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For indeed we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed (that is, merely put aside our earthly bodies), but that we would be clothed upon (that is, receive our resurrection bodies), that what is mortal (our present body) may be swallowed up of life. Now He that wrought us for this very thing is God, who gave unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Being therefore always of good courage, and knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body (that is, while our spirits still dwell in this

present, earthly body), we are absent from the

Lord (He being up yonder in heaven and we being

down here) (for we walk by faith, not by sight);

we are of good courage, I say, and are willing

rather to be absent from the body, and to be at

home with the Lord.” The meaning of this is perfectly plain and unmistakable. It tells us that there are three states in which believers exist: First, our present state in which our spirits dwell in our present, mortal bodies; Second, the state between the time of our death and the Return of the Lord Jesus, when our spirits are unclothed, that is, are no longer clothed upon with our present mortal body; Third, our final state of perfected blessedness, in which our spirits will be clothed upon with our resurrection bodies. That for which the intelligent believer longs is the third state, when not only his redeemed spirit is with Jesus Christ, but when his redeemed spirit is clothed upon with his redeemed body and both spirit and body shall be with Jesus Christ.

But while this third state is what the believer longs for, while that is his final hope; still, if he is properly instructed, he knows that the second state, the state where the spirit is disrobed from his body and is present with the Lord, is better than the state in which we now are, though not so good as the ultimate state that shall be ours at the return of our Lord. The moment the believer in Christ falls asleep in Christ (or what men call “dies”), his spirit departs to be with Christ in conscious and very great blessedness. As Paul puts ip ine het + 23 “But I am in a strait betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ; for it is very far better.”

That is to say that the state where we are “absent from the body and present with the Lord” “‘is very far better” than our present state. For his own sake Paul desired to depart and be with Christ, which was “very far better,” but for the sake of the believers in Philippi he desired to remain in the body, because that was “more needful for” them. (Phil. 1:24).

The spirits of those who have already departed from the body are happy now, exceedingly happy, far happier than they ever were on earth; but they have not attained unto their full reward and supreme blessedness. They will receive that when the Lord Jesus comes back again from heaven to earth, when their bodies shall be raised and they shall be clothed upon with their resurrection bodies, and not only their spirits but also their bodies, shall be with Christ Jesus.

(2) In the second place, At the Return of the Lord Jesus to this earth, the Bodies of those Believers in Him who are still living, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor. 15:52) shall be transformed and glorified, transformed into the Likeness of the Body which Jesus Christ now has in the Glory. This Paul tells us in Phil. 3: 20, 21:

In our present life, as soon as we accept Jesus Christ we get great peace, “the peace of God that passeth all understanding,” (Phil. 4:6, 7), and great joy, even “joy unspeakable and full of glory,’ (1 Pet. 1:8). Ah, but that is nothing to the joy we shall have when He comes back again. In spite of all the joy we have in Christ Jesus in the life that now is, because of the limitations and frailties of these mortal bodies of ours, “We groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body’ (Rom. 8:23). When Jesus comes again we shall have at once the “redemption of our bodies,” we shall have our glorified bodies, the bodies that are the perfect counterpart of our redeemed spirits that inhabit them; we shall have then bodies not subject to suffering and pain and weakness and decay and dissolution, but incorruptible, glorious, heavenly bodies, bodies like unto His Own. In that day “our adoption,” i.e., our placing as sons, our outward manifestation as sons of God, shall be complete, in the redemption of the body as well as of the spirit. We shall have bodies, but bodies which are unlike our present bodies, bodies not subject to the aches and pains and weaknesses to which our present bodies are subject, bodies that shall in no sense be a hindrance to us in our work, but rather the perfect instruments for the carrying out of every purpose of the redeemed spirits that inhabit them, bodies like unto His Own glorious body. These bodies are no longer to be held down to this earth; we shall have no need of aeroplanes, but these bodies “shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air” and “be forever with’ Him.

(3) In the third place, At the Return of our Lord

238 THER “GOHRIST. OF Titik BIBhE

Jesus, before He reaches the earth, while He is still in the air on His way here, all believers in Him, both those still living, and those who have fallen asleep but who are now ratsed, shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the ar, to be forever with Him. This Paul tells us “by the Word of the Lord” in 1 Thess. 4: 15-17:

“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

The Greek word translated “caught up” in this passage 1s a very strong word and means, “to carry away by force.’ We shall be snatched away from this world that is to be for a time visited with awful judgments, we shall be carried away before these judgments break upon this world, It is the Returning Lord Jesus Himself Who puts forth the Divine power that carries us up out of the doom and desolation and untold and unparalleled misery that is for several years to be visited upon this Christ-rejecting world. This we learn from our Lord’s Own Words in John 14: 1-3:

“Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

The Greek word translated “receive” in this passage is a word full of deepest significance. It is a compound word, compounded of a verb which means “‘to take with the hand” or “to lay hold of” or “‘to take in order to carry away,” and a preposition which means “‘alongside of” or “with,” and so the compound word means “to carry away to be with oneself.” (Thayer in his Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament gives as the first meaning of the word “‘to take to, to take with oneself, to win to oneself.”) So the thought is, that before the Great Tribulation breaks on this earth, our Lord Jesus on His way to this earth, will put forth His hand (or, His Divine power) and take us away out of the world and its doom to be with Himself. As we shall see later, when “the Tribulation” culminates, He will come to the earth, to the complete deliverance of Israel, and bring us with Him to participate in His glorious reign.

(4) In the fourth place, At the Return of our Lord to this Earth, when He is manifest in His Full Glory, Believers in Him shall be made like Him as a Result of their Seeing Him-as He is. This we are told in 1 Jno. otter

“Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that if He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is.”

This is one of the most precious promises in the whole Word of God. I have sometimes thought that it was the most wonderful and the very best of all. Think of it, “WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM’ — ! like Him not only in physical appearance and outward glory, but like Him intellectually and morally. Beholding our Lord as He really is, not in His veiled glory (as He was manifested here on earth), but in the full unveiling of His glory, will transform us into the very Image of the Lord. Even in the present life, looking at Him makes us like Him. “We... beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.” (2 Cor. 3:18). But now we see through a glass darkly, and so our reflection of His glory is imperfect; then we shall see Him face to face, in His undimmed glory, and shall perfectly reflect it in our own persons. This is one of the most amazing statements in the Word of God. It seems too good to be true, but it is true; for God Himself says it. In this present life we are struggling hard to be like Him, but there is a very wide gulf between the intellectual and moral and spiritual attainment of the best of earthly saints and the infinitely and absolutely perfect wisdom and character of our Lord Jesus Himself. At His coming again, the weakest and most halting and most hesitating of His people will be transformed into His Own perfect likeness, “we shall be (just) like Him.”

In 2 Thess. 1:10. We are told that the Lord Jesus “shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed.” Notice carefully it does not say, “To be glorified by His saints,” but “in” them, and not “to be marvelled at by His saints,”

THE CHRIST OF THE BIBLE — agr

but “to be marvelled at im all them that believed.” That is to say, it is because of the reflection of His glory in us, that He is to be “glorified in” us, “and to be marvelled at in” us. We shall so perfectly reflect His Glory, not merely the outward glory of His external appearance, but the inward glery of His moral character, that He will be glorified in what we then are. From most of us He gets very little glory from what we now are, but from the weakest of us He shall get great glory as we shall then be. In a similar way we are told in Col. 3: 4, R.V., that: “When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with Him be manifested im glory.”

In that day, not only shall He be seen in His perfect Divine glory, but we also shall be seen in glory, our bodies shall be glorious, but better still, our characters shall be glorious. WE SHALL BE JUST LIKE HIM. He will transform us into His Own perfect Image. Then all our strugglings after Holiness shall have perfect fruition. So we read in 1 Thess. Ses:

“And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.’

(5) In the fifth place, At the Return of the Lord Jesus, the Church, the Betrothed Bride of Jesus C hrist, shall be united in marriage with Him, and shall share with Him in the Delights and Glories of the M arriage Supper. This we see in Matt. 25:10 compared with Rev. 19: 7-9:

“And while they went away to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with Him to the marriage feast.”

“Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto Him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And He said unto me, Write, Blessed are they that are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And He saith unto me, These are true words of God.”

All that that may mean we cannot now fathom, but it means glory and joy beyond any power of human expression or human conception. Even those who “are invited to the marriage supper’ are “blessed,” but how much more blessed the bride herself!

At that marriage of the Church to Himself Jesus Christ will “present the Church to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” This we are told in so many words in Eph. 5: 25-27.

(6) In the sixth place, At the Return of the Lord Jesus, all those who have loved His appearing shall receive a crown of righteousness. This we are told in OM LATIN Ae a ze Wo 2

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved His appearing.”

wo CHRISTOF THE BIBLE 243

We will not stop to dwell upon all the significance of this, but it certainly ought to lead every one of us who think we love the Lord Jesus Christ to ask ourselves very seriously and earnestly, Do I really “love His appearing,’ am I really longing for His Return, and is this “crown of righteousness” which He is to give at His Return to those “who have loved His appearing’’ to be mine?

(7) In the seventh place, At the Return of our Lord from Heaven to this Earth and His consequent Victory over His Enemies, His believing people shall live and reign with Him, This we are told in Rev. 20:4:

“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the Word of God, and such as worship not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and their hand; and they live, and reign with Christ a thousand years.”

This verse seems to refer primarily to the Tribulation saints but by implication it refers to all believers. Certainly a bride must reign with her husband. Furthermore, the fact that we shall reign is clearly set forth in Rev. 5:9, Io:

“And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy art Thou to take the Book and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with Thy blood men (out) of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests; and they reign upon the earth.”

When Jesus comes back from heaven to earth, He shall sit upon the throne and reign over all the earth. At that time there shall be what the kings of the earth have long striven after, but never attained unto, an absolutely universal kingdom. But not only so, but His Church, i.e., all believers in this present Dispensation, shall reign with Him; the Church, the Bride of Christ, shall reign jointly with the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ Himself, “The King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.” There is no earthly monarch ruling on earth to-day (nor has there ever been an earthly monarch at any time) that has the glory or the power that the humblest believer in Christ will have after the Lord Jesus returns with us to this earth. Of His Coming to reign we are told in the Old Testament also, e.g., Lipp ler2 2c Skye

“Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as King and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is His name whereby He shall be called: Jehovah our righteousness.”

Such shall be His reign, and the Church, which is His Bride, is to reign with Him. As we have said, we shall be kings; and no earthly monarch, even the most magnificent this old world has ever seen, ever had such glory as shall be ours in that day. Do not talk to me about, or try to tempt me with, the splendors of multi-millionaires, or of the great potentates of this earth.

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Bah, that is nothing to what I am to have, and I am willing in the meantime, if it be God’s will, to live for a few years in a cottage, or even a shanty, here on earth, until He comes.

2. Now let us look at, THE RESULTS OF THE
RETURN FROM HEAVEN TO EARTH OF THE
LORD JESUS AS’REGARDS ISRAEL.

(1) In the first place, Im connection with the Return of the Lord Jesus, the children of Judah and Israel, the whole twelve tribes who have been scattered far and wide among the Nations, shall be gathered from the four corners of the Earth and brought back into their own land, the land of which Jerusalem is the political center.

This is clearly indicated in a number of passages.

Read isayrt* 11, 12:

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord will set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, that shall remain, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He will set up an ensign for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the disbursed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”

Some think that there is to be a separate history in the future for the ten tribes that were scattered abroad and for the two tribes, when Jesus returns. But we are clearly taught in this passage that such is not the case.

Now read Ezek. 36:24:

“For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land.”

Now turn to the next chapter, Ezek. 37: 21:

“And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, whither they are gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land.”

(2) In the second place, As a Result of Jesus, the Messiah, Coming Back to this Earth, He will deliver Israel in the day when the trials and sufferings of centuries shall have culminated in the last, the Great, Tribulation. We have a picture of this in Zech. 14: 1-4:

“Behold, the day of Jehovah cometh, when thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall Jehovah go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle. And His feet shall stand in that day upon. the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall be cleft in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.”

The people of Israel have known dark days in the past, and the present days are very dark for Israel,

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but still darker days are coming, the culmination of Jehovah’s judgment on Israel for all her unfaithfulness to Him, and especially for her rejection of the Messiah at His first coming, but those dark days shall be short; for in the very hour when the blackest midnight of despair has settled down upon Israel and all nations are gathered against them, and there seems to be no hope, then Jehovah in the Person of the Lord Jesus shall Himself come to deliver and to give them victory over all their enemies.

(3) In the third place, At the Return of our Lord Jesus in His Glory to the deliverance of His people, Israel shall recognize Him as their God for Whom they have waited, and there shall be gladness and joy among His people Israel. This we are told in Isa. 25:9:

“And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our ‘God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is Jehovah; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”

While this passage can hardly be absolutely limited to Israel, the context clearly shows that the primary reference is to them (cf. vs. 10-12).

At this time of our Lord’s Return to the Deliverance of His people, and as a result of His Return and of that deliverance which He shall bring, every Israelite then living upon the earth shall be brought to repentance and shall be saved.

This we are told in Rom. 11: 25-27:

“For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved: even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: And this is My covenant unto them, When I shall take away their sins.”

At the present day, saved Jews are in a great minority among the Jewish people: “In that day,’’ all Jews shall be saved; every member of Israel and of Judah shall be saved. We find the same thought in the Old Testament also, read Jer. 23:5, 6:

“Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as king and deal wisely, and He shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is His name whereby He shall be called: Jehovah our righteousness.”

In this present Dispensation we preach the Gospel to the Jews and save a Jew here and there, but the saved are a very small minority, but in that day all Jews shall be saved. There will not be one unsaved Jew or Israelite in all the earth.

(4) In the fourth place, In connection with the Return of our Lord and His deliverance of His earthly people, Israel shall be cleansed from all their filthiness and of all their idolatry, and of all their transgressions; anew heart will be given unto them, and a new spirit put within them, the stony heart shall be taken away from them and they shall be given a heart of flesh. God will put His Spirit within them and cause them to walk in 1s statutes and they shall keep His Judgments and do them. This we read in Ezek. 37: 23:

“Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will save them out of their dwelling-places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be My people, and I will be their God.”

We read words of a similar import in Ezek. 36: 25-20:

“And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep Mine ordinances, and do them, And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will he your God. And I will save you from all your uncleannesses: and [ will call for the grain, and I will multiply it, and lay no famine upon you.”

This same great truth is found in other words in Jers etasn:

“Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of

the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was a Husband unto them, saith Je-

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hovah. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith Jehovah: J will put My law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people: and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah, for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.”

(5) In the fifth place, In connection with the Return of our Lord Jesus and as the outcome of the Salvation of Israel by Him at that time, Israel shall be wondrously multiplied and the waste and desolate and ruined cities shall be rebuilt and the desolate lands shall be made like the garden of Eden. There shall be abundance of prosperity and gladness on every hand; Jerusalem shall be called the “City of Truth.” This we are told over and over again in the prophets. Read for example Jer. 31: 27:

“Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will sow the house of Israel’ and the house of Judah with the seed of men, and with the seed of beast.’’

This of course sets forth a great multiplication of men and animals in the land of Israel at that time. Read also Ezek. 36: 33-38:

“Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: In the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be builded. And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, whereas it was a desolation in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, this land that was desolate is become like the garden

- of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined

cities are fortified and inhabited. Then the nations that are left round about you shall know that I, Jehovah, have builded the ruined places, and planted that which was desolate: I, Jehovah, have spoken it, and I will do it. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: for this, moreover, will I be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them: J will increase them with men like a flock. As the flock for sacrifice, as the flock of Jerusalem in her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.”

Read also Isa. 65:25:

“The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, saith Jehovah.”

Read Isa. 32:15:

“Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest.”

Once more let me read Isa. 35:1:

“The wilderness and the dry lands shall be glad; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose.”

The Return of the Lord Jesus to this earth will do more to reclaim the barren deserts of the earth than all the reclamation and irrigation schemes that were ever devised by man. The physical creation has participated in man’s ruin because of man’s sin, but at the Return of the Lord it shall also participate in the glorious Results of man’s redemption.

(2) In the second place, As the Final Outcome of Chnst’s Coming again, heaven and earth shall be purged by fire and there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, free from all imperfections of every kind. This we are told in 2 Pet. 3: 10-13:

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing that these things are all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? But, according to His promise, we look for a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”

The burning up here referred to apparently is not so much for judgment as for cleansing and refining and reforming and purifying and glorifying. It is not so much something to dread as something we should “eagerly desire” and “look for.’’

The thought of the coming new and incomparably better heaven and earth is found also in Rev. 21:1:

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more.”

In Rev. 21: 1-27 we have a marvelous picture of the coming new heaven and new earth. Read the entire passage for yourself.

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To sum up all the strange and wonderful and inconceivably glorious results of the Return of our Lord Jesus from heaven, where He now is, to this earth, where we now are and where He once was:

AS THE RESULT OF THE COMING BACK
WOVE EARTH OF JESUSSTABR/GHRIST OF
Po DIBEE, CHE ‘ONLY: TRU GHRIST,
THERE WILL BE A NEW AND GLORIOUS
MAN, CLOTHED UPON WITH A NEW AND
GLORIOUS BODY, LIVING IN A NEW AND
GLORIOUS HUMAN SOCIETY, IN A RE-DEEMED AND NEW AND GLORIOUS PHYS-ICAL UNIVERSE.

The loftiest dreams of poets and social philosophers will be far more than realized. The glory of that Coming Day no words can express and no human imagination can conceive, and all that glory depends upon the Return of our Lord Jesus.

Is it any wonder that the unceasing cry of the individual Christian is, ‘Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly”? There are many things that I long for, but nothing else for which I so long as I long for the Coming Back Again of Christ Jesus to this old and sin-cursed earth. I would like to see a great revival, surpassing any revival the world has ever seen, but the greatest of all revivals will be the Coming Back of Jesus from heaven, where He now is, to this earth.

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V. THE TIME WHEN JESUS, THE CHRIST OF THE
BIBLE, THE ONLY TRUE CHRIST, IS COMING
BACK FROM HEAVEN, WHERE HE NOW IS, TO
THIS EARTH, WHERE WE NOW ARE be
WHERE HE ONCE WAS.

We come now to the question, When will Jesus, the Christ of the Bible, the only True Christ, Return from Heaven, where He now is, to this Earth, where we now are and where He once was? There is more division and controversy on that question than on any other question connected with our Lord’s Return. There are many who believe that He is coming again and that He is coming personally and visibly, and that He is coming with great publicity, and that He is coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, but who, when they come to the question, When is He coming, part company from one another. The two main divisions of those who believe in a personal, visible coming of the Lord are known as “Premillenarians” and “Postmillenarians.” Those who believe that He is coming before the Millennium, and that the Millennium is the result of His coming, are called “Premillenarians,’ and those who believe that He is coming after the Millennium are called ‘“Postmillenarians.” ‘There is still a third class, who are neither Premillenarians nor Postmillenarians, because they do not believe that there is to be a Millennium. They believe that the words about the “thousand years” are purely figurative. They say, furthermore, that there is but one passage in the Bible that mentions the Millennium at all, and that is in the most figurative book in the Bible, the book of Revelation. Which of these three classes are right? What does the Bible say on the question of the Time of our Lord’s Return? We shall find that it says a great deal, and that what it says is very clear, and as definite as words can make it.

1. The first thing that the Bible teaches in regard to the time of our Lord’s return is that, No man knows, and no man can know, the exact tume of our Lord’s return. On that point, the Bible is as clear as language can make it, and as emphatic as it is clear. Listen to the words of our Lord Jesus Himself in Matt. 24: 36, 42:

“But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels, neither the Son, but the Father only.... Watch therefore: for ye know not on what day your Lord cometh.”

These words of our Lord are as clear and emphatic as are His words in which He declared that He was coming back, and coming back personally. It is impossible for any one to attempt to set dates for the coming of Jesus Christ and remain submissive in his mind to the authority of Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus Christ Himself, as a Man, refused to attempt to penetrate this question that the Father had set within His own authority, thus setting an example for us; and for any one of us to attempt to do what the Lord Jesus Christ (as a Man) would not do, is the most daring and wicked presumption. When any man says to me any year, as has been said to me in two or three different years, “I am very sure the Lord Jesus is coming for His church at Easter,” or, as some have said, “‘at Pentecost,” or, “at the Feast of Trumpets,” I feel like saying to him, and I would be perfectly warranted in saying to him, “How dare you, sir? How dare you seek to penetrate the mystery that the Lord Jesus (as a Man), solemnly setting us an example to follow in His steps, did not venture to penetrate?”’

But let me read you another utterance of our Lord Jesus Christ equally explicit, Acts 1:6, 7:

“They, therefore, when they were come together, asked Him saying, Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And He said unto them, It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father hath set within His own authority.”

In these words, the meaning of which, when taken in their connection, is as plain as day, our Lord Jesus absolutely forbade even His inspired apostles, and much more us, to seek to penetrate the domain of dates in connection with His coming and His kingdom, saying that these belonged to the exclusive authority of God the Father, that God the Father “hath set” them “within His own authority.” In the face of this plain and solemn declaration of our Lord, for any one to dare to set a date, even tentatively, for the coming of Christ or for the rapture of the church, or for “the end of the Times of the Gentiles,’ or for anything of that kind, is to commit an act of rank and gross disobedience to our Lord Jesus Christ. There is only one phrase that can adequately describe such conduct, and that phrase is “presumptuous wickedness.” A dearly beloved friend of mine once attempted to do this, and brought his manuscript to me for criticism. On reading his manuscript I pointed out to him this verse, Acts 1:7, and pled with him not to publish his manuscript. He asked me, “Cannot the verse be interpreted in this way: ‘It is not for you to know the times or seasons, which the Father hath set within His own authority,’ but you can know other times and’ seasons which the Father hath not set within His own authority, and the time of our Lord’s return and the rapture of the church may be one of these times or seasons which the Father hath not set within His own authority?” I told him, what is unquestionably true, that this was not only not a good, honest, straightforward interpretation but an evasion, but that, furthermore, the interpretation was absolutely impossible when we consider the Greek text. In the Greek text (as also in the Revised Version), there is no “the’’ before “times or seasons,” so that while this interpretation might be a possible one, though not a likely one, of the Authorized Version, it is an absolutely impossible interpretation of the Greek text. The attempt to explain away Acts 1:7 is as disloyal to Jesus Christ as an attempt to explain away Jno. 14:1, 2 or 1 Thess. 4:16,17. All this date-setting business is not merely foolish, it is wicked, it is grossly wicked, it is showing contempt for our Lord Jesus Christ. Any one who attempts to set a date for our Lord’s return is by that fact discredited as a teacher of the Word.

The setting of dates is usually attempted on the ground of calculations from the data given in the book of Daniel, but the data given in the book of Daniel were not intended to in any wise help us to fix the exact date of our Lord’s return. Bible statements of

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dates have to do with God’s dealings with the Jews; and, therefore, the time in which the Jew is set aside and God deals with the Gentiles is an indefinite and indeterminate interval. Any calculations, therefore, built upon the data in the book of Daniel are utterly unreliable, because there we have fixed years, plus other fixed years, plus an unknown quantity, and, therefore, all the attempts to set a time are attempts at the impossible. It cannot be emphasized too strongly that the statements of time made in the book of Daniel were never intended of God to give us any clew whatever to the exact date of our Lord’s return.

Furthermore, the prophecies in the book of Daniel were extant in the day when our Lord Jesus uttered the words quoted from Matt. 24: 36, “But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels, neither the Son, but the Father only.’”’ If even the Lord Jesus Himself could not, or would not, determine the date from the data in Daniel, we certainly ought not to expect or try to. Our Lord certainly understood the lessons the prophecies of Daniel were intended to teach, but He distinctly declares that as a Man, setting us an example that we should humbly follow in His steps, He voluntarily put aside the knowledge of the date of His return, so that He Himself (as a Man) did not know the day nor the hour of His return. Any one who attempts from the data in Daniel, or from anything else in the Bible, to set a date for the return of our Lord Jesus is guilty of the daring presumption of setting himself above the Lord Jesus and attempting to do what the Lord Jesus Himself in the most solemn and the sternest terms has forbidden us to do: in awful presumption he is trying to find out things that the Lord Jesus tells us “the Father hath set within His own authority,” and with which, therefore, we must not meddle.

Furthermore, it is a part of God’s purpose and method in dealing with men to keep them in uncertainty on this matter of the time of our Lord’s return, in order that we may keep ourselves in readiness for His return at all times. If the date had been revealed in Bible times, no one who understood the Bible could be watching and waiting for the Lord’s return until to-day. The mania for setting dates cannot be too strongly rebuked. It has done more to bring the whole precious doctrine of our Lord’s coming into disrepute than anything else has. The one who does it is doing the Devil’s work.

2. But while the Bible clearly tells us that it is not the will of God that we know the date or try to know the date of our Lord’s return, nevertheless the Bible tells us a great deal about the character of the time when our Lord shall return, and about what will precede His return and what will come after it. The Bible tells us that the return of our Lord to this earth will be at such a time as even His disciples think not. Even the faithful and wise servant will be taken unawares, but he will be found doing his Master’s will. This we are told in Matt. 24: 44-46:

It is evident from this passage that the time of our Lord’s return will not be a time when everybody is expecting His coming, but a time when people are not expecting it. The fact that people in general are not expecting the Lord’s coming to-day is no proof that He is not coming to-day; it is rather an indication that He may come to-day, for it is at just such an hour as this that “the Son of Man cometh.”

3. In the third place, The Lord Jesus will come again im a time when the world is absorbed in its usual occupations. This is evident from Luke 17: 26-30:

“And as it came to pass in the days of Noah, even so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise even as it came to pass in the days of Lot; they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all: after the same manner shall it be in the day that the Son of man is revealed.”

From these words of our Lord Jesus it is perfectly clear that the time of His coming will be in a day when the world is absorbed in its usual occupations, and that it will not be a time when men are expecting Him to come, when they are gathered in white robes on hilltops awaiting His appearing; everything will be going on just as usual when the Son of Man shall be revealed. Stores will be in full operation, streets will be crowded with people, theaters and other places of amusement will be full, worldlings will be card-playing, dancing, carousing, and doing all manner of foolish, worldly and selfish things, business will be going on just as usual, and without a moment’s warning the Lord will appear. It will be exactly such a time as the present time, exactly such a day as to-day.

4. In the fourth place, The time of our Lord’s return will be a time of apostasy, a time when men are giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, 1.€., a time of multiplying cults and of great wmroads of the occult, grievous times, a time of the triumphing of errors and isms, and true faith will be hard to find. This is plain from 1 Tim. 4:1, 2:

“But the Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men, that speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron,”

The “doctrines of demons” in this passage refer to doctrines taught by demons. It has a clear reference to the “occult,” to Spiritualism and similar cults.

We see, also, the character of the times of our Lord’s return similarly depicted in 2 Tim. 3: 1-5:

“But know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, railers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, implacable, slanderers, without

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self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof: from these also turn away.” In this passage, as well as in the preceding passage that we read, there is a most vivid and accurately characteristic picture of our own day, as would clearly appear if we should take up the passages in detail, for we certainly live in a day in which men are “lovers of money” as in almost no other day in the world’s history. We live in a day when both rich and poor are money-mad. We live in a day of most extraordinary boastfulness; the boastfulness of the day has invaded not only our business and our politics, but the domain of philosophy and science. Never was there a day in which “railers” were more in evidence or more audacious. “Disobedience to parents’ is a characteristic everywhere of home life. General society is becoming appallingly “without natural affection,’ seen in the appalling increase of divorce and in the parents’ disregard for the highest interests of their children. Never was there a day of the utmost savagery, when men were so fierce, as all nations showed themselves in the late war. It is a day when it is startlingly true, that men and women are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (the craze for amusements has reached an extraordinary pitch), and on every hand we see people “holding a form of godliness but having denied the power thereof,” there is such a multiplicity of religions as never before in the history of the world, and. yet most of these religions are without the real power of God in them, mere form. People have gone wildly enthusiastic over the number of people that are following in these days some religion, but religion itself is not necessarily a good thing, it depends upon the character of the religion; “a form of godliness” without “the power thereof” is worse than no religion at all.

Our Lord sets forth again the fact that the time of His return will be in a time of apostasy in Luke 18:8:

“When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?”

The clear implication of this passage is that at the time when the Son of Man comes back again it will be a time when true faith is hard to find.

From all these passages it is evident that the time of the return of the Lord Jesus from heaven to earth will be a time of apostasy, a time when men are giving heed to “seducing spirits” and “doctrines of demons,” i.e., to false doctrines and to various forms of occultism, such as Spiritualism and Theosophy, “grievous times,’ when true faith will be difficult to find. It will not be a time of universal righteousness, it will not be a millennial time; it will be anything but that. The words of Paul in 1 Tim. 4:1, that the later times will be times when some shall “give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons,” indicate a time when men will be so anxious to be taught by unseen, spiritual beings that they will not be careful to distinguish between the Holy Spirit and other spirits, and so will surrender themselves to be controlled by and taught by “demons.” This is an actual and very marked characteristic of our times, and this characteristic of our times has increased enormously since the outbreak of the war, when the pursuit of the occult seems to have become the absorbing passion of the hour with many, both in the church and out of it. As we have said, we have one manifestation of this in “Spiritualism,” another in “Theosophy,” and still another in some forms of the Tongues Movement. Spiritualism and some forms of the Tongues Movement are closely allied, as could be shown by acts of which I personally know, if there were time to go into it. 2 Tim. 3: I-5 gives, as has been indicated, a remarkably accurate and detailed picture of our own times, and from that fact many conclude that the Lord must be necessarily coming very soon, but that does not necessarily follow. In times now long gone by, earnest men of God, intelligent students of the Bible, have often thought, because of the similarity in some respects of their own days to the times described in the Bible, that the coming of the Lord was very near. Martin Luther, for example, so thought in his own day, and the words which we have read were characteristic of his day, though they were not so characteristic of his day as they are of our own day. These men of the past, who thought that the coming of the Lord was very near were not mistaken, for it was near. The ones who were mistaken were the ones who thought that it was so far away that they let it have no effect on their own lives. Nevertheless, the fact that they felt so deeply that the coming of our Lord was near should make us cautious about asserting dogmatically that the Lord will come this year or next year or even in the days of any of us who are now living; He may,

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but we must not say “He will.’’ But certainly these passages, which so clearly and wonderfully depict our own time, should make us thoughtful and watchful. The multiplying iniquities of our day, the apostasy of so many professing Christians and even ministers and professors of Theology, into the most daring and damning forms of unbelief, even going so far as to deny the Virgin Birth of our Lord and the Resurrection of His Body from the Dead and the final and absolute authority of the Scriptures, and also the lawlessness of the great corporations on the one hand and of the oppressed laboring classes on the other hand, the appalling outbreak of the war spirit in every land, in spite of all the schemes of politicians and statesmen and the monied interests to curb it, all these things are signs that the age is fast approaching its end, and therefore a sign that His coming may be very near at hand. Men’s hearts are “fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world” (Luke 21:26). The greatest statesmen of our own land, and of all other lands, have the most anxious forebodings as to what the future, and the very near future, will bring forth. All this would indicate the very near appearing of our Lord; and He Himself has told us that when we see “these things begin to come to pass” we are to “look up and lift up your heads; because your redemption draweth nigh.” But even this does not warrant us in asserting positively that our Lord will come this year or next year or even in a few years; for there have been times of apostasy in the past, indeed there have been times of more widespread and more thoroughgoing apostasy than in the present day, and there have also been times in the past when men’s hearts have been “fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which were coming on the world.” If godly men in those days had predicted positively that our Lord would come within a certain fixed time, or even within a hundred years, they would have been wrong, and would have brought dishonor upon the truth. Nevertheless, as the days grow so rapidly darker, it is right that our hearts should grow more expectant and more hopeful with the assurance that the Lord is at the door.

5. In the fifth place, The Bible solemnly commands us to be always looking and ready for the Lord’s return. Iherefore, the return of our Lord to this earth must be an event that, so far as we know, may occur at any moment. Read, for example, Mark 13: 34-36:

“It is as when a man, sojourning in another country, having left his house, and given authority to his servants, to each one his work, commanded also the porter to watch. Watch therefore: for ye know not when the lord of the house cometh, whether at even, or at midnight, or at cock-crowing, or in the morning; lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.”

Read, also, Luke 12: 35, 36:

“Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning; and be ye yourselves like unto men looking for their lord, when he shall return from the marriage feast; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may straightway open unto him.”

And read, also, our Lord’s words in Matt. as tae

“Watch therefore, for ye know not the day nor the hour.”

In these passages we are commanded to be “‘watching,’ “looking,” “waiting” and “ready.” It is impossible to be watching or looking for an event that we know cannot occur for one thousand years or for seven years or for any set number of years. It is true that there were individual believers, as, for example, Peter, and also Paul in the latter part of his life, to whom the Lord made it clear that they should pass away before He came, but this was individual dealing with individual men. As far as the body of believers as a whole were concerned, they were told that they were to be watching, looking and ready for His coming. Therefore, as far as they were concerned, as far as you and I are concerned, the return of our Lord Jesus is an event that may occur at any time.

These various passages are all as plain as day, and show clearly that we are always to be watching, looking and ready for the Lord’s return, and therefore His return may be an event that, as far as we know, may occur at any moment.

No event is predicted in Scripture, and no series of events, that must occur before Jesus comes in the air to receive His own unto Himself. There are things predicted that must occur before He comes to the earth with His saints, but He may come for us, as far as we know, at any moment; and it stands us in hand to be always ready, for “in an hour that ye think not, the Son of man cometh.”

The question will arise at this point, What about 2 Thess. 2: 2-4:

“To the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is just as hand; let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God.” Here we are told that the great apostasy and the outward manifestation of the Man of Sin must occur before “the day of the Lord” comes, and some one might ask, ‘““How, then, can our Lord come until the Man of Sin is clearly revealed?’ The answer to this seeming difficulty is very simple, and it is this — “the day of the Lord” is not the time of the Lord’s coming in the air to receive His church to Himself. “The day of the Lord” is the time of the Lord’s coming to the earth with His saints to execute judgment on the earth, and that is preceded by the coming of the Lord to receive the Bride, His Church, to Himself (1 Thess. 4:15-17). There is nothing to show that a considerable interval may not occur between the coming of Christ in the air for His saints and His coming with His saints to the earth, and in that interval “the Man of Sin” will be revealed. Indeed, there are clear indications that there must be an interval. First of all, Christ has much to do with the church in the air before He comes with the church to the earth; and, furthermore, as we have seen, it is clearly taught that the church is to be caught away out of the world before “The Great Tribulation,” which accompanies the manifestation of “the Man of Sin.” In addition to all this, we are taught in this very chapter, in the immediate connection with the verses that we are considering, that “the lawless one’ cannot be revealed until the restraining power “be taken out of the way.’’ What is this restraining power? We are not distinctly told in the passage what it is, though we are told that the Thessalonians knew what it was, The restraining power must either be the church or the Holy Spirit; therefore, “the Man of Sin’ cannot be revealed until the church is taken from the earth, or until the Holy Spirit is taken away from the earth; but our Lord Jesus Himself tells us that the Holy Spirit will not be taken away from the earth until the church is taken away. You will find His words in Jno. 14:15, 16: “If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may be with you for ever.”

As the Spirit is to be with the church “forever,” the Spirit cannot be taken out of the world until the church is taken out of the world.

Besides all this, the revealing of “the Man of Sin” is in connection with “The Great Tribulation,” and “The Great Tribulation,” as any one will see who studies it carefully and thoroughly, is distinctly Jewish, and has to do with the period after the removal of the church from the earth. The thought that some are advancing that God has already withdrawn His Spirit from the church has absolutely no basis whatever in Scripture, but, on the contrary, is contrary to the plain teaching of Scripture. The Lord Jesus has distinctly told us that God will never withdraw His Spirit from the church, and the Spirit will be here until the church is taken up. He says, as already quoted, in Jno. 14:16, 17:

“And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: ye know him; for He abideth with you, and shall be in you.”

It is perfectly clear then from all that has been said that there is no event that has been revealed to us that must take place before the Lord comes for His church, and that, as far as we know, He may come any day or at any moment, and He must come before “‘the Man of Sin’ is revealed and “The Great Tribulation’ breaks.

Jesus Christ may come for His church to-day. I do not say that He will come to-day. I do not say that He will come this year or next or next or next. I hope to live until He comes; yes, I even expect to live until He comes, but I may not. I may be gone from this world years before He comes, but He may come to-day. The present times, as those who carefully study them and also carefully study their Bible know, bear a close resemblance to the times of the return of the Lord Jesus as pictured in the Bible, and I confess that as the days grow darker, my heart grows lighter, for Jesus Himself says in Luke 21: 25-28:

“And there shall be signs in sun and moon and stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the billows; men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world: for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to come to pass, LOOK UP, and lift up your heads; because YOUR RE-DEMPTION DRAWETH NIGH.”

As the days grow darker, the Golden Age draws nearer, the age to be ushered in by the Return of our Lord. Before the sun sets to-night, there may resound through the world the voice of the archangel and the trump of God and the Lord Himself may descend from heaven and we be caught up with our loved ones who have fallen asleep, to meet Him in the air, and so ever be with Him. If we are so caught up, woe be, for a little space, to those who are left behind. The appalling atrocities of the Kaiser and his hordes in Belgium, in the most awful days of the last war, will be nothing to what shall come upon this earth when the Devil’s own Kaiser takes the reins of government. ARE YOU READY FOR THE COMING OF THE LORD JESUS? Make no mistake, refuse to be deceived, find out to a certainty. If you are ready, then, if He comes to-day, up through the roof to unutterable glory; if not ready, woe, woe, woe for you, such as this world has never seen nor suffered before.

“BE YE ALSO READY; FOR IN AN HOUR
THAT YE THINK NOT THE SON OF MAN
COMETH” (Matt. 24: 44).

Restored from a scan of the 1924 edition, with page headers and numbers removed and words rejoined across line breaks. Scan-derived text, still being proofread; compare the original scan before quoting.